In this study, we’re going to deal with a new definition that’s coming into the Christian lexicon.  The word being re-defined is overcomer and the new definition is that an overcomer is someone who lives a Christ-like life, as opposed to just talking about it.  They have died to self and now live a life that’s holy and blameless.  Some who embrace this definition claim that only those who meet its requirements will be the Bride of Christ while all other believers will spend the millennium in the “outer darkness” learning the sanctification that they failed to learn on Earth, so they’ll be ready for eternity when the 1000 years are over.

The fact that the Bible never uses the word in this context doesn’t seem to be a problem for advocates of this new definition.  It’s like the word repent, which is never used in the Bible to describe a change in behavior, only a change in attitude.  Because they’ve never been taught that, its intended meaning has never entered most peoples’ minds.  The common understanding of overcomer is facing the same future.

But to set the record straight, let’s see just how the Bible does define an overcomer.  The word overcome first appears in connection with believers in John 16:33

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

Even though this world isn’t a perfect place, we can have peace in our lives knowing that Jesus has overcome the world.  No matter how bad life is for us here, in Christ we’re assured of a better one to come. Jesus is the overcomer, and He told us this to encourage us.  (Imagine how you’d feel about this word of encouragement if you arrived in Heaven only to discover that you had to complete a 1000 year indoctrination program before you were deemed worthy.)

Paul said that we should overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:21) But while he admonished us over and over again to go beyond salvation and achieve victory over the sin nature in order to win the crowns available to us for doing so, he never once said that our participation in the kingdom depends on it.   This is the only time he ever used the word relative to our behavior.

Of all the New Testament writers, John used the word most often, saying that those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God are overcomers.

I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God lives in you, and you have overcome the evil one. 1 John 2:14

Every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.

You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. 1 John 4:3-4

Everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. 1 John 5:4-5

We’ve overcome the evil one, the spirit of anti-Christ, and the world, and how did we do that?  Through faith, by believing that Jesus is the Son of God.  As is always the case, it’s our faith that makes us appear holy and blameless not our behavior, which could never qualify us.

In Rev. 2-3 the word is used in each of the seven letters to churches to describe those who resist or reject the religious sin for which the church is being criticized and/or remain true to the gospel.

Overcomers in Ephesus

Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to eat from the tree of life, which is in the paradise of God. (Rev. 2:4-5,7)

By the end of the first century the Church had already become so busy doing religious works that they had forgotten that the work was done and our primary purpose is to worship the Lord and give Him thanks.  The relationship He gave His life to have with us was already becoming another religion. Those who changed their attitude and overcame the human tendency to earn our position with God, and rested in the fact that Jesus did it all would meet Him at the Tree of life in paradise.  The overcomer was the one who rested in faith and worshiped God.

Overcomers in Smyrna

Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. He who overcomes will not be hurt at all by the second death. (Rev. 2:10)

The ten days referred to here are the reign of 10 Caesars, which lasted for 250 years, through the third Century.  During this time Christians were persecuted relentlessly.  Many were called upon to give their lives for their faith.  The Lord offered no escape from this except that which comes from death.  But those who remained faithful in believing His promise of everlasting life, received it.  The overcomer died in faith and received life.

Overcomers in Pergamum

Nevertheless, I have a few things against you: You have people there who hold to the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to entice the Israelites to sin by eating food sacrificed to idols and by committing sexual immorality. Likewise you also have those who hold to the teaching of the Nicolaitans. Repent therefore! Otherwise, I will soon come to you and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it. (Rev. 2:14-17)

In the 4th Century the church was married to the pagan Babylonian religion, and practices that were not only un-Biblical but detestable to the Lord became common.  The Lord threatened to fight these practices with the sword of His Mouth, which is his Word.  The overcomers were those who stayed true to the unadulterated Gospel and lived by faith in its promises.  They received the Bread of Life, and a token that would commend them to the Father in the name of the Son.

Overcomers in Thyatira

Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. I will strike her children dead. Then all the churches will know that I am he who searches hearts and minds, and I will repay each of you according to your deeds. Now I say to the rest of you in Thyatira, to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets (I will not impose any other burden on you): Only hold on to what you have until I come. To him who overcomes and does my will to the end, I will give authority over the nations (Rev. 2:20-26)

The illicit marriage of the Church to Babylon produced four children, all alive on Earth today.  Thyatira represents the Catholic Church, the first child.  It became wealthy by confiscating property through false accusation, like Jezebel had, and also instituted the sale of indulgences that authorized licentious practices for a fee.  But to those who hold Jesus in their hearts and reject the traditions that would add to what He accomplished on the cross, Jesus promises salvation.  They haven’t learned  Satan’s secrets of Jesus plus Mary, Grace plus works, Scripture plus sacraments, and have overcome, living by faith alone.

Overcomers in Sardis

Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. Remember, therefore, what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you. Yet you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their clothes. They will walk with me, dressed in white, for they are worthy. He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels. (Rev. 3:2-5)

The Protestant Church, represented by Sardis, carried out the Lord’s threat to judge the Church’s practices by the Sword of His Mouth. The call of the reformation was “Sola fides (only through faith), sola gratia (Only by grace), solus Christus (only with Christ), and sola Scriptura (Only His Word).”  For the first time, the Bible was available to all who could read it. Great seminaries were founded to teach pastors the Word of God.  But into these seminaries the devil crept,  and the authority of God’s word was challenged.  It was all in the name of intellectualism so it was thought to be good, but soon the Gospel had been robbed of its power, the light of faith had gone out, the Spirit was quenched, and the people had been lulled to sleep.

Many still are asleep, but there are a few who remember the Gospel and cling to it.  They’ve repented of the Documentary Hypothesis, Modern Rationalism, and all the rest.  They’ve overcome what Walter Martin called the Cult of Liberalism and have retained the power of the Gospel.  They’ve been washed in the Blood of the Lamb and been given clean clothes.  Their names have been written in the Lamb’s Book of Life, and He will never blot them out.

Overcomers in Philadelphia

I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut. I know that you have little strength, yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. Since you have kept my command to endure patiently, I will also keep you from the hour of trial that is going to come upon the whole world to test those who live on the earth. I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown. Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven from my God; and I will also write on him my new name. (Rev. 3:8,10-12)

“Hold on to what you have,” the Lord commands the Evangelical Church, “because I’m coming soon.  And because you’ve waited patiently for me, I’ll keep you from the hour of trial that’s going to test the whole world.”

And what do we have to hold on to?  We have His Word, His name, and His promise.  He’s coming soon. There are 5 crowns mentioned in the New Testament, to which believers should aspire.  But here the Lord mentioned only one.  Which one?  I think it’s the one described in 2 Tim. 4:8, the Crown of Righteousness, for those who’ve longed for His appearance.   Who but the Bible believing, prophecy studying Evangelical Church can even qualify for this crown, and which one is more descriptive of the yearning in our hearts?

Overcomers in Laodicea

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne (Rev. 3:15-16-20-21).

Here’s the fourth child, the End Times Apostate Church.  Prosperous and in need of nothing.  They like to call themselves followers of Christ, not just believers, and the focus is definitely on doing.  Hardly anyone hears His knock on the door, which means He’s standing outside trying to get in.   To those who overcome this mad rush to conquer a world beyond saving, in the name of a Jesus many of them don’t know, in the hope of accomplishing something He doesn’t want, to those who hear the knock and invite Him into their heart to kindle the fires of faith, He will give the right to sit with Him on his throne.

These seven letters give us seven examples to show that we overcome by faith alone.  From the church in Ephesus we see that we overcome by worshiping the Lord and thanking Him for doing all the work of our salvation.  From Smyrna we see that it’s by remaining faithful to the point of death that we overcome and receive life.   The overcomers in Pergamum rejected the pagan rituals of Babylon that obscure and pervert the Gospel Story. Those in Thyatira refused to add to the simplicity of gospel, while in Sardis they refused to let its power be taken away.  Overcomers in Philadelphia hold on to His Name, His Word and His Promise, and Laodicean overcomers are admonished to listen for His knock at the door, and open their hearts to him when they hear it.

While it’s God’s will that we be conformed to the image of Christ in our behavior, and that we go beyond salvation to achieve victory, it’s clear from Scripture that we overcome by clinging tenaciously to our child-like faith in the Lord’s completed work on the cross.  The seven churches were just that, churches.  Yet for the most part they introduced gospel obscuring, faith destroying doctrines that over the generations have kept untold millions off the path to eternal life.  Only those who overcome by faith survive.

He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To him who is thirsty I will give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. (Rev. 21:6-7)

The Book of Revelation ends as it began, by telling us that eternal life is provided without cost to those who walk by faith in Him alone, believing that the work is done, that the Lord is the beginning and the end of their quest for eternal life.  These are the overcomers.

A few weeks ago I received several questions concerning a book recently published by a well known Christian author.  The questions so concerned me that I bought the book to have a look for myself.  (I’m not going to mention the name of the book or the author to avoid giving either any unintended publicity.)

Right off the bat I was shocked to read to very first sentence in the foreword, which says, “I believe that most Christians who get to heaven will be seriously disappointed.”  Well, that got my attention.  Imagine our Blessed Assurance being the source of serious disappointment.

The basic premise of the book is that while salvation is enough to keep you out of Hell, it’s not enough to get you into the Kingdom.  Only those found worthy will become the Lord’s bride, and the rest of the Church will spend the Millennium in “the outer darkness” banished from the presence of God and disqualified from reigning with Him.  In the Outer Darkness, says the author, believers will experience unimaginable regret, remorse and a sense of shame during the 1,000 years they’ll spend looking back over their unsanctified lives. They’ll remember every detail of their failures causing much weeping and gnashing of teeth.  (According to recent surveys, this could be the destiny of as many as 93% of all  born again Christians alive in the US today.  There are no estimates available for previous generations, or for those from other countries.)

This view is not new, by the way.  It’s been around for a generation or so, and is based largely on Matthew 8:11-12, 22:13, 24:50-51, & 25:30, the four places where either the Outer Darkness, or weeping and gnashing of teeth, or both are mentioned.  Toward the and of the book the author refers to them saying, “Always remember the ones who were not able to inherit” and, “These passages are all talking about Christians! And yet none of them inherited the Kingdom. Yes, they were all in it. But they were in some other region, some other place -the darkness outside – and thus separated from the light of the Lord’s presence.”

As do the ones before it, the book makes it clear that all true believers are still saved and still go to Heaven, but because they did not follow Christ faithfully on Earth they will dwell in a part of Heaven away from Him and forfeit any rewards of reigning with Him in His Kingdom.  It’s a middle position that was originally developed to refute the idea that you can lose your salvation, without giving believers who don’t live victorious lives a “free pass” into the Kingdom. I think of it as a kind of “half way house”, not prison but not really freedom either.

I’m convinced that those who hold this position have misinterpreted all four of the “outer darkness” passages.  Here’s how I think these four references to the Outer Darkness should be understood.

Outer Darkness Reference 1.  Matt. 8:5-12.

When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering.”

Jesus said to him, “I will go and heal him.”

The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”

When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. I say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Here Jesus is clearly speaking to Israel, not the Church.  It was at least two years before Pentecost and well before Israel had rejected His offer of the Kingdom. He was criticizing them for letting a Gentile Roman soldier demonstrate a stronger faith in Him than they had.  He said that their lack of faith would result in people from all over the world (Gentiles) inheriting the Kingdom, while the Jews, who were the subjects of the Kingdom, would be thrown into the outer darkness.

Israel was then (and will be again) God’s Kingdom on Earth. The Lord repeated this warning in Matt. 21:43 when He again said to the Jews, “Therefore I tell you that the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people who will produce its fruit.” It’s obvious that the Lord believed they were the subjects of the Kingdom or else why would He threaten to take it away from them?

This reference is a warning to Israel that at the End of the Age Gentile believers, like the Centurion, would join their patriarchs at the Wedding Feast while they sat outside in the darkness for failing to recognize their Messiah.

Outer Darkness Reference 2. Matt 22:1-14

Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.

“Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’

“But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.

“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.

“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless.

“Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

“For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

This is the parable of the Wedding Banquet, and the one ejected is a last minute wedding guest. The Bride is not a guest and could never be thrown out of her own wedding.

To accept the author’s view that this parable is about the Church you have to start with the belief that some of the Church is the Bride of Christ and some isn’t. But the Bible never even implies that. You can only come to that conclusion by departing from a literal interpretation if Scripture to make it say what you want it to say.

For example the Lord has imputed our righteousness to us by faith, and not works (Romans 4:5)  Isaiah described man’s righteousness as filthy rags (Isa 64:6) and the Lord’s as “garments of salvation” and “robes of righteousness” (Isa 61:10) where the acquisition of these qualities is likened to clothing given us at a wedding.  But the author wants us to believe that there’s a difference between Salvation Righteousness, which comes from belief, and Kingdom Righteousness that comes from the works we do on Earth.  Therefore the guest was a born again believer who was not only excluded from being the bride but was thrown out of the banquet into the outer darkness because he had no Kingdom Righteousness.

Here’s how I see it.  In Rev. 16:15, just after the 6th Bowl judgment and long after the church has departed, the Lord said, “Behold, I come like a thief! Blessed is he who stays awake and keeps his clothes with him, so that he may not go naked and be shamefully exposed.”

He was alluding to the fact that the Doctrine of Eternal Security expires with the Rapture, a fact that Jesus taught in the Parable of the 10 Virgins.  Tribulation believers will be responsible for keeping themselves saved.  Still, their righteousness is symbolized by clothing.

The man ejected from the banquet was a last minute guest, a tribulation believer not part of the Church.  He was trying to receive the blessing of those invited to the wedding feast (Rev. 19:9) at least 7 years after the Rapture.  He hadn’t kept himself pure and had lost his salvation.  When the Lord returned, he tried to gain entrance into the Kingdom in his own clothing (on the strength of his own righteousness) without the righteousness imputed to him by faith (the wedding clothes).  He was discovered and ejected. Notice that the Bride is never mentioned in this parable.  It’s not about us.  It’s about the guests at the end of the age.

Outer Darkness References 3-4.  Matt. 24:50-51 And Matt. 25:30

Matt. 24:50-51 concludes the parable of the wise and wicked servants, and Matt. 25:30 does the same for the Parable of the Talents.  I’ll mention them together because they both contain judgments, but they don’t take place in Heaven at the Bema Seat where the Church will be judged.  Along with the Parable of the 10 Virgins which they bracket, the location and timing of the judgment is identified as being on Earth after the Lord’s return.  This was established as early as Matt. 24:29-30 making every thing that follows pertain to believers on Earth at the 2nd Coming.  In other words, these parables describe the destinies of Tribulation Survivors who didn’t keep the faith. Again, they don’t involve the Church.  You can easily confirm this by looking at Matt. 24:36-37, Matt. 25:1, & Matt. 25:14.

As I said before, the Doctrine of Eternal Security expires at the Rapture, and so Tribulation believers are in danger of falling away and losing their salvation. (Rev. 14:12 & 16:15) These passages in Matthew demonstrate that fact in no uncertain terms.  The Lord’s final Olivet Discourse teaching, the Sheep and Goat Judgment, which also takes place on Earth after the 2nd Coming, closes His case on the disposition of Tribulation Survivors. (Matt. 25:31-36)

To apply any of these teachings to the Church, one would have to believe that the Rapture and Bema Seat judgment take place after the 2nd Coming, but a detailed color chart in the book clearly shows that the author believes in a pre-Tribulation Rapture which is followed immediately by the Bema Seat judgment.

All that said, I think the biggest problems with this “half way house” view concern certainty and motivation.  To accept this position you have to be willing to believe that the Lord is not going to give you any assurance about how you’ll spend the next 1000 years until after it’s too late for you to do anything about it. For example, in the author’s take on the Parable of the Wedding Banquet, the guest thought he belonged there and was speechless when told that he didn’t.

And 1 Cor. 4:5 says the Lord will judge the Church according to the motives of our hearts. How could our motives ever be pure if we know that our works here will determine our participation in the Kingdom?  Our hearts are incurably wicked  and will always go to self interest.  Greed would replace gratitude in every believer’s heart and make it even less likely that anyone would survive the judgment intact.

In Ephesians 1:13-14 and 2 Cor 1:21-22 Paul said that our inheritance was guaranteed the moment we first believed.  Was the inheritance he spoke of 1000 years of  unimaginable regret, remorse and a sense of shame unless we work to improve it?  Is that what we’re assured of?

I have no problem with there being a certain amount of inequality in the Kingdom.  Not every one can live next door to Jesus, or be the king of some country or even the leader of a small group.  And although the Bible clearly admonishes us to go beyond salvation to achieve victory over this world, there’ll be many who won’t win the crowns that are promised to believers for doing so. But to say that most of us won’t even participate in the Kingdom Age, but will be consigned to 1000 years of abject misery defies reason.  How does that equate with the promise that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life? (John 3:16) Who would want such a life, even if it only lasted 1000 years?

Through out the history of the Church scholars have held that there are two possible destinies for humanity, Heaven or Hell.  To introduce a third one, where we’re saved from the worst but kept from the best, after the fate of all but one generation of believers has been sealed, is remarkable to say the least.  And I must confess I’d give a lot more credence to this view if there wasn’t such a complete disregard for context and timing in providing supporting verses.  That tells me that there aren’t any that really fit.  And that makes it bad theology.